Finished Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class , by Lawrence Otis Graham, which was interesting.
Now I’m reading The Operator by Gretchen Berg.
I just wanted to note something I learned about in the book H. G. Wells – Secret Agent that I didn’t know before. The larger of the two Îles Saint-Marcouf , the one called île du Large, has a fort on it that was built on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte. The fort is almost as large as the island, which sits four miles off the coast of Normandy. Nevertheless, the fort is surrounded by a moat.
Let me repeat that, in case you missed it. A fort that is on an island just larger than itself four miles from land is also protected by a moat.
Why?
The moat is no longer filled, but it once was. Shvartsman, who wrote the book, says in a note that it’s the closest thing in the world he’s seen to a Bond villain’s lair.
Finished The Operator by Gretchen Berg. Meh.
Now I’m reading Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans from World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation, by David Davis.
I just finished reading a quite enjoyable book of thriller short stories. The title is Matchup, and it was edited by Lee Child. Published in 2017, the book features 11 stories, each of which is a collaboration by two authors of thriller books. For instance, Lee Child is paired up with Kathy Reichs, Sandra Brown wrote with C.J. Box, and Lisa Jackson collaborated with John Sandford. In most of the stories, a main character by the author is one of the protagonists: Joe Pickett, Virgil Flowers, Jack Reacher, etc.
Highly recommended!
You should check out her Wikipedia entry. She lived quite an interesting life after her time in Germany. Martha Dodd.
Wheels of Courage: How Paralyzed Veterans from World War II Invented Wheelchair Sports, Fought for Disability Rights, and Inspired a Nation , by David Davis, which was excellent.
Now I’m reading Sowed to Death, by Peg Cochran.
I need to check that out. Thanks!
I started the audio version of The Future of Another Timelineby Annalee Newitz. Authors, please don’t read your own book, get a professional to do it. This woman’s whiny voice is going to kill me for eleven and a half hours. (This is this month’s book club selection)
On Kindle, I am reading Strange Little Girl by John Dean. The second DCI Blizzard story and one with the twist at the start of the story!
Nonzero by Robert Wright. Wright’s argument seems to be that society as a whole inherently moves in a direction he defines as progress. I tend to agree but Wright seems to be taking a long time to get to his central point. I’m almost a hundred pages into the book, which is less than three hundred and fifty pages long, and Wright is still building his base.
Finished Sowed to Death , by Peg Cochran. Not recommended.
Now I’m reading The Plant Hunter: A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines, by Cassandra Leah Quave.
New Stephen King book coming in September, whoo hoo!
The library pulled back my audiobook of the novel Beautiful World, Where Are You by Irish author Sally Rooney and didn’t let me renew it, since someone else had a hold on it. So for now I’ve turned to Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, two movie adaptations of which I’ve seen. Never read the book, though, and so far I like it.
An infusion of books shared by a friend has me deep into All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. I only started on it last night. Faster will have to wait.
Finished Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need To Know About Global Politics by Tim Marshall.
Written in 2015 this book is a good and thoughtful analysis on the history, present day challenges and future possibilities of global affairs branching out from geographic factors. The book is divided into ten maps (chapters) - Russia, China, USA, Western Europe, Africa, Middle East, India and Pakistan, Korea and Japan, Latin America and The Arctic. I took away a lot of good information on history and cultural backgrounds from each chapter and the geographical analysis was something different than you typically get from normal international affairs analysis. Some of the geographical analysis was a bit too repetitive in some places whereas in others there was more of a focus on military and human activity and not enough on the natural geographical factors. And the chapter on Western Europe hasn’t really aged well with regards to the UK but in fairness no one thought Brexit was a serious possibility at the time of writing. However Russia, Africa and China he did make some pretty accurate calls of what could happen with them in the near future and I liked the analysis on India and Pakistan too because it simplified a rather complex hatred between two nuclear powers which we all know exists but how many of us really understand what it is really about. I look forward to reading his follow-up book which came out last year.
Six hundred pages into Anathem, I’ve finally figured out the point of the story is the philosophical upheaval that would occur in our worldviews if we did make contact with an interstellar alien race. Only 300-odd pages to go. At this point I’m sticking with it out of sheer cussedness. If I can get through Thomas Wolfe, I can get through this.
Fortunately my hold on the third Marcus Didius Falco book just came in at the library so I can have some nice refreshing Ancient Rome to repair my poor, battered brain.
Finished The Plant Hunter: A Scientist’s Quest for Nature’s Next Medicines , by Cassandra Leah Quave, which had some interesting information about how plant derivatives can be used as medicines. For example, the botanist author says that she’s researching how a chemical from the beautyberry can be combined with an antibiotic which is now ineffective against a type of bacteria saw that the drug is effective again. She’s also researching medicines to use against Covid.
Now I’m reading Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin.
Thanks for my morning giggle.
I think I’ll skip Anathem tho.
Audiobooks: Middle Falls Time Travel series by Shawn Inmon. A group of loosely related stories about people who mysteriously “repeat” portions of their lives, sometimes many times over. They occasionally encounter another “traveler” or at least suspect so. It’s very interesting, and I’m on the 5th of 15 books (The Emancipation of Veronica McAlester). There are a lot of interesting topics, including Nature vs Nurture elements (one is about a serial killer who repeats differently and becomes almost the opposite of his former self).
Paperback: rereading Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Vern. It’s probably been 40 years since I read that as a teen. I had forgotten how good it was.
Which translation are you reading?
It’s important. I didn’t realize how important until I read Walter James Miller’s The Annotated Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, which points out every error and omission in what was for a long time the “standard translation” by Lewis Mercier. If you got one of those omnibus editions or a cheap paperback or an audiobook version, it’s probably this translation. And it is abysmal. when I say omissions, I’m talking about big chunks of the book cut out. The translation omits political discussions and technical discussions. It gets translation absurdly incorrect, sometimes hilariously so.
There have been about a dozen new translations since 1960 that correct these errors. One by Miller himself.
There have been two or three “Jules Verne’s Renaissances” since 1960, where Verne’s work was popular again and re-evaluated. Most of his works have been re-translated or re-edited in recent years. Miller wrote another annotated Verne, taking as his topic the book From the Earth to the Moon. Lewis Mercier/Mercier Lewis’ translation cut an outrageous amount out of that book. The ARCO/Fitzroy editions, edited by I.O. Evans, helped bring most of Verne’s works to a modern and English-speaking audience circa 1960, but he also cut out big portions of the books. Many of the books “edited” by Verne’s son, Michel, were extensively changed by the son. It’s only in recent years that we have fresh and accurate translation of The Meteor Hunt and The Golden Volcano and The Secret of Wilhelm Storitz, for instance, all of which Michel Verne seriously altered.
At this point I’m in the same mindset I was in the summer before my sophomore year of high school when I had to read Les Miserables. All 2000 pages because I didn’t know there was an abridged edition available. It took me three godforsaken months. All I remember was that I lost interest after Fantine died and the scene near the end where freaking angels from Heaven came down to watch Marius and Cosette consummate their marriage. I swear, I am not making that up.
I haven’t yet read this, and now I’m curious. Do angels like tastefully done porn, or something?